Date-stamped : 22 Mar94 - 14:25 Eng vs WI, Test 2, Georgetown, Guyana, 17-22 Mar 94 ====> Day 1, 17 Mar 94 Mike Atherton played a captain`s innings but two late wickets left the game in the balance in Guyana. Atherton batted all day to score a magnificent 131 after Courtney Walsh had England reel- ing at 2-2. The Lancashire star added 171 for the third wicket with Robin Smith who hit a welcome 84 before he shared a 72 stand with Graeme Hick. But Curtly Ambrose removed Hick and Gra- ham Thorpe late on with the new ball to expose the tail and leave England on 258-5 at the close. Mike Atherton celebrated his su- perb century against the West Indies and set his sights on turn- ing it into a match winning innings. It`s the most pleasing in- nings I`ve played for England for a long time he said after reaching an unbeaten 131 overnight. What I need now is to turn it into a really big 100 he went on adding: At the moment the match situation is a bit iffy. It was Atherton`s first ton against the West Indies and his first Test century for three years. Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 2, 18 Mar 94 England`s tail collapsed in less than an hour after lunch as they were all out for 322 in Guyana. Mike Atherton took his overnight score to 144 in the morning session before he fell to Curtly Ambrose. Jack Russell and Chris Lewis were put under pressure but survived to take the total to 313-7 at lunch. Russell was finally out to a superb catch by Richie Richardson at slip and the rest quickly followed Kenny Benjamin mopping things up with two wickets in three balls. Contributed by goo-chie (jdw5@*.ukc.ac.uk) ====> Day 3, 19 Mar 94 The crowd stood to cheer Brian Lara as he departed after a really outstanding innings of 167 that included 25 fours and 2 sixes and compiled off only 210 deliveries. There was an even LOUDER ROAR from the Guyanese crowd as it's native son, 19 yr old Shivnarine Chanderpaul, strode to the middle. There were signs in the crowd saying "The Little Terror", "WI's YOUNGEST GUN" and "Simply the Best". He looked a little tense and it must have been for this kid: * 19 yrs old making his Test debut. * Playing in front of your home crowd with many travelling for miles to see you do well and almost willing you to do so. * The wicket was not made for stroke play (even if Lara proved otherwise). * Critics saying you were a surprise selection. * Playing to keep your place knowing that a failure may be your end. His first scoring stroke (a single) was greeted by another roar. But he had Bourda really ROCKING with his second scoring stroke as he crashed Fraser thru backward point for 4. He played one injudicious stroke (probably his only one) when he played at one wide of offstump. But he settled down and played some fine strokes. He hooked (Fraser I think) for 4, cover drove for a couple other fours. There were some straight drives, and a shot thru midwicket all travelling to the boundary. He reached 50 by smacking Igglesden's first ball of a new spell to the cover boundary. And then the crowd ERUPTED!! Some (sadly) ran onto the field and held up play for a while. Adams tried desperately to shield the young man from the crowd but gave up in disgust. The police should have anticipated something like this and should have been prepared. It was an unruely way to greet such a pleasant occassion. Unperturbed, Chanderpaul continued to play confidently and looked set for an even bigger score. However when on 62, he tried to pull a rank longhop from Salisbury, played too early, missed and was bowled. It was a disappointing end to such a fine (and promising) innings. In all he hit 9 fours in his knock and was hardly troubled except for his nervous start. Cozier said he looked like a 14 yr old out in the middle and that he came into the side with a big reputation for someone so slender. Holding felt that with this start and the fact that he is a useful legspinner, he should be able to hold his place in the team. Personally, I was seeing him for the 1st time and he looked good. I would have liked to see him stand more upright and close in his stance just a little bit but the experts (Boycott for one) felt that these were just minor flaws. For the "WI's Youngest Gun" it was not a blazing start but there was enough there for you to situp and take notice. Those who have seen him bat feels that it should not be long before this gun starts to blast. Contributed by Cliff.Shivcharan (charan@bnr.ca) ====> Day 4, 20 Mar 94 Rain rescued England in the final session, but Mike Atherton's men are still facing an innings defeat. When the players trooped off, only Alec Stewart's defiant 72 not out was denying the West Indies pacemen. West Indies gained a lead of 234 after England finally dismissed them for 556 and Curtly Ambrose then destroyed the top order. He collected his 200th Test wicket when he bowled Atherton fourth ball and also dismissed Mark Ramprakash and Robin Smith. Monday's rest day looks set to delay the inevitable. Surrey team mates Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe are England's last hope of avoiding defeat in Guyana. Vice captain Stewart refused to give up hope. "We didn't do much in the first innings so it's up to us to put that right now," he said. It's going to be a hard job but we have to show we are up to it. The pitch makes it more difficult because of the lack of bounce. He added: "We either have to hope for rain on Tuesday or battle our way through." Contributed by goo-chie (jdw5@*.ukc.ac.uk) ====> Day 5, 22 Mar 94 West Indies wrapped up victory by an innings and 44 runs when England were finally all out for 190. Chris Lewis and Ian Salisbury had bravely resisted for 110 minutes in a gutsy stand but when Lewis fell the game ended quickly. England's early hopes rested with Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe but the Surrey men were each bowled by unplayable deliveries. Courtney Walsh finished proceedings when he bowled Salisbury to put West Indies 2-0 up in the series. England captain Mike Atherton admitted that his team had been beaten by the better side in Guyana "They scored their runs at such a fast rate that they had plenty of time to bowl us out," he said. "They're tough to beat over here." Atherton admitted that his batsmen had to knuckle down and sort out their run of single figure scores. "It's up to the individuals to get themselves in the right frame of mind. There were too many low scores and not enough consistency." Richie Richardson was full of praise for his team after their crushing victory over England. "Brian Lara batted exceptionally well and I'm very happy that Jimmy Adams got his Test 100 after falling short before," he said. It was West Indies' first win over England in Guyana since 1947/48 and he added: "It's never easy here as it's usually a batsman's paradise." Man of the match Brian Lara said: "I thought it was a very easy batting pitch and I'm still hoping to get a lot more runs." Contributed by goo-chie (jdw5@*.ukc.ac.uk) ====> Day 5, MORE England crumble to innings defeat as pace men continue domination By Christopher Martin-Jenkins Looking in vain for assistance from the clouds, England helped themselves instead yesterday, not to the extent of saving the second Test match but sufficiently at least to make the West In- dies work hard for their victory by an innings and 44 runs which gives them a two-nil lead in the series. As so often, when the final breach was made after stout resistance from Chris Lewis and Ian Salisbury, the end came swiftly 35 minutes before tea, with another 45 overs still available to a quartet of fast bowlers unexpectedly, but outstandingly, led on the final day by Kenny Benjamin. Only the margin of the West Indies victory in the series is now in doubt, not the victory itself. They proved them- selves at Bourda to be a class above England in bowling speed and accuracy and in batting technique and flair. What commenced under Richie Richardson as a period of transition without Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Jeff Dujon and, very quickly, Malcolm Marshall, has become a new reign of triumph, all the better for being con- ducted with style and a smile rather than with excessive menace or arrogance. They rose effortlessly above the dubious decision to put England in to bat first. Thanks to their batting power it turned out, of course, to be England, not themselves, who had to bat last on a pitch keeping low. Moreover, they carried a teenage boy on their irresistible wave without weakening the overall effort. Shivnarine Chanderpaul's bowling gave England a brief glimpse of an easier life but his 62 contributed valuably to the total of 556 which buried them. Last summer Chanderpaul was playing against the England Under-19s, for whom Matthew Dow- man, like himself, scored a double century. While Chanderpaul is touring India next October, Dowman will no doubt be contemplating a season for Nottinghamshire seconds. They live in different worlds and the gulf seems only to be widening between the teams. For England, the months of hope before the tour, the careful build-up and thorough preparation, the promising early weeks of the trip itself, seem now to have been merely an exercise in fu- tility and self-delusion. Six overseas Tests have been lost in succession. The future is a little less bleak than it was in Sri Lanka this time a year ago, if only because Mike Atherton has quickly established himself as a sensible and decisive captain, whose batting has grown in authority in response to the responsi- bility. His 144 in the first innings deserved better, like many of Graham Gooch's before him. If Gooch is invited back into the team next season, it may only be on the condition that he will change his mind about touring Australia. England need him to play the role which Desmond Haynes is performing so well. Those who feared that Atherton would be undone by the probability of defeat here need not have done so. He is, he says, gradually finding out the players who can expect to have a part in his own rebuilding exercise, but there is little time at present for cool appraisal. England flew back to Trinidad last night for a day of recupera- tion (for most) followed by a hard practice before the third Test starts on Friday. Only when they look at the pitch can they make decisions about the attack for the third match in Port of Spain. Graham Thorpe seems sure to lose his place to either Nasser Hus- sain or Matthew Maynard. By batting for 90 minutes in all in the second innings, and for a further 11 overs yesterday, Thorpe un- fortunately managed only to underline his technical frailties. He was beaten several times and may have been fortunate to survive a confident early appeal for caught behind off a long-hop down the leg-side, but it was Alec Stewart who went first, following a hook for his 13th four by going back to a shooter, probably the one genuinely unplayable ball of the game. Thorpe was neither back nor forward when beaten for pace by Courtney Walsh. Here was another illustration of the gulf: Thorpe, shuffling across his crease and playing half-cock with his toes pointing down the pitch; Brian Lara, lifting the bat high, staying sideways-on and moving his feet the maximum possible distance forward or back. This has nothing to do with nature: it is tech- nique, pure and simple. Thorpe has a good temperament and plays spin better than most of his rivals, but he needs, like a Faldo or Woosnam, a funda- mental re-think about his method. Jack Russell, whose method is all his own, battled with typical pluck and eccentrici- ty before edging Curtly Ambrose to the excellent Junior Murray to give the big man his fourth wicket of the innings, though it was his only one yesterday. Richardson kept him fresh for the new ball, just in case, and he had to take it as soon as he could thanks to an eighth-wicket stand which occupied 27 overs and an hour and 47 minutes either side of lunch. Lewis played with less difficulty than anyone during his 143-minute innings and it was Kenneth Benajmin, in the ninth over with the new ball, who broke the all-rounder's concentration as he clipped a leg-stump half- volley to Jimmy Adams at short square-leg. After two Tests Benja- min has 15 wickets: another one feeding on the team's success and rapidly becoming an integral part of it. Fraser succumbed to his first legitimate ball but Salisbury was last out, castled on the back foot by Walsh after two more hours at the crease in a losing cause. If everyone in the team had Lewis's talent and Salisbury's heart, England would not now be without any realistic hope of a way back. They could start to win Test series again, rather than be- ing the floor mat on which the other countries now wipe their feet with such painful regularity. Contributed by Vicky (VIGNESWA@*umass.edu) ====> Day 5, MORE Impoverished England receive another pounding; Lewis and Salis- bury stand tall on the burning deck as Kenny Benjamin graduates with honours to put West Indies two up in series By Martin Johnson England left Guyana last night pretty much as they found it - im- poverished and run down - and Guyana also said cheerio to England pretty much as it found them: impoverished and run down. The difference is that the Guyanese manage to remain cheerful when things don't work, although it would be asking a bit much to ex- pect Keith Fletcher to break into a song and dance routine at the moment. The England team manager has now presided over six overseas Test matches and lost the lot. In his 12 games in charge England have won once, drawn once, and been beaten 10 times, five of them by an innings, three by eight wickets, and one by 179 runs. The oth- er one, in Sri Lanka, was by a nail-biting five wickets, and they are doubtless too ashamed to talk about it in Colombo. However, there was just a time yesterday when those of us gath- ered for the funeral were half thinking in terms of praise rather than burial. An eighth-wicket stand between Chris Lewis and Ian Salisbury detained the West Indians for almost two hours, but once they were separated the threatened conjuring trick turned into the proverbial pack of cards. England's last three wickets finally went clatter in the space of 12 deliveries (three balls fewer than in the first innings) and with England still 44 runs from making the West Indies bat again it was done and dusted half an hour before tea. Not surprisingly, there was a fair old dogfight to grab a souvenir stump, but rath- er more surprising was the fact that one of those involved was England's No 11, Alan Igglesden. If Igglesden is in the market for collecting mementoes of England defeats, he will probably have plenty of future opportunities if he plays, although in fairness he might have been grabbing a stump in order to show the England bowlers exactly what a stump looked like. England's aim has not so much been deadly, as given rise to suspicions that they have been practising for this series by bowling at a barn door (without making too many dents in it ei- ther) and Mike Atherton correctly identified the bowling as the main reason England lost here. "They, and Brian Lara in particu- lar, scored their runs so fast that it gave them time to bowl us out twice on a pitch that got more difficult as the game went on," he said. "Many top-order batsmen got out for single-figure scores. We really couldn't afford to lose here, especially as the next Test in Trinidad starting on Friday usually offers more in the way of English bowling conditions, but we have just got to show a bit of character and keep our spirits high." His opposite number, however, is not sure England have any spirit left in the optic. "We are not taking them for granted," Richie Richardson said, "but we believe they are getting more and more demoralised. We would like to win 5-0." "That is definitely not going to happen," Atherton said, al- though inwardly he must now be fearing the worst. If West Indian cricket was more like its politics, England would have more to be optimistic about, but, with less talent at his disposal, Richardson has got his side pulling together in a way that Viv Richards was never able. Lara and Curtly Ambrose were two gigantic opponents here, but Kenny Benjamin has proved to be a far more redoubtable bowler than England can ever have suspect- ed. As was the case with Paul Reiffel last summer, they are an easy snack for the goldfish never mind the piranhas. Still 115 behind with six wickets remaining, England probably suspected the game was up from the moment they drew back the bed- room curtains and reached for the sponsored sunglasses. Within 10 overs, both overnight batsmen had gone, one in a way that highlighted the unreliability of the pitch, the other in a way that suggested his time in the side may now be up. The ball from Kenny Benjamin that did for Alec Stewart landed short of a length but cannoned so low into the stumps that the batsman, not for the first time, was jack- knifed as if struck in the box. Graham Thorpe's bails, on the other hand, were removed when he played routinely forward to a more or less routine delivery from Courtney Walsh and missed it. Jack Russell then completed a game that will not linger fondly in his memory by snicking a ball from Ambrose angled across the left- hander, and it was at this point that Lewis (assisted by a dropped catch at short square leg) and Salisbury took to the air raid shelter. Lewis, who is still attempting to find out why the Georgetown re- gistrar of births thinks he is 28 rather than 26, certainly played with the maturity of someone two years older, and it took the second new ball for the West Indies to calm whatever anxiety that might have been starting to creep up on them. Neither was it a classic new- ball dismissal, Jimmy Adams taking a blinding catch at short midwicket as Lewis clipped off his legs. Angus Fraser was then bowled second ball by a shooter, and when Walsh finally rattled through Salisbury's defence after two hours at the crease, it was all over. If Atherton's boyish smile is now beginning to fade, it is not so much because of losing, as the manner of it. The fact that Richardson could make such a cock-up over the toss, and still canter home by an innings, merely con- firms England's current status as the doormats of international cricket. Devon Malcolm yesterday pledged the rest of his first-class career to Derbyshire by signing a new four-year contract. The 31-year-old agreed the deal before flying back to the West Indies after recovering from knee surgery. (Thanks : The Independent) Contributed by Vicky (VIGNESWA@*umass.edu)